Cognitivism

Cognitivism focuses on how the mind processes and uses information. Within cognitivism, tasks are analyzed and then broken down into smaller steps and/or chunks. Information is then taught from the most simple to the most complex based on the learner's prior knowledge. Cognitive learners use schema or mental maps to help organize information and tie the material to existing knowledge to aid memorization.Cognitivism focuses on mental processes which includes how people perceive, think, remember, learn, solve problems. Psychologists working from a cognitivist perspective, then, seek to understand cognition. Lastly, cognitivism has influenced education, as studies of how people learn potentially sheds light on how to teach.

Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development

Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development (1970) identified four major stages in which children progress: sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operational and formal operational. This theory sugge_sts that these stages reflect differences in a child's cognitive abilities and that learners cannot be taught key cognitive tasks unless they have reached a particular stage of cognitive development.